When you look at the bigger picture, this is an alarming number. More small businesses are growing concerned as the days press on. This is what brings us here today. We are here to discuss those top concerns and how to fix them appropriately.

THE EXCHANGE NOTICE MANAGEMENT

If your small business is covered under the FLSA, you need to pay extra close attention to this one. By law you are required to give your employees notification of the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Notifications. You are required to let your co-workers know when open-enrollment begins and ends. You are required to let your employees know any and all information regarding this subject.

I have known bosses from larger companies who fail to give their employees the same respect and consideration. Please do yourself and your employees this favor. If you have no idea what any of this is, you need to get acquainted with it right now. These notifications are important part of this process. You can find the downloadable files and applications online.

THE BENEFITS PLANS STRUCTURE

This is next part is just as important as the first one. If you are going to be offering your employees some sort of health plan, you have to make sure the plan fits the required structure.

With each health plan you will see different options. There are the self-insured plans. There are the plans that offer double coverage, this happens usually in terms of the spouse.

There are all types of plan structures. With this in mind, do all of them meet the requirements? Each plan needs to at least meet the minimum requirements, if not exceed those requirements.

If you are having issues with the requirements, you can go online to the checklist. There is an official checklist online. This will keep you and your company on track.

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ENROLLMENT

This should all be outlined within the company health packages that are given out. Bosses need to make sure all employees get these materials. There is usually a beginning and ending period for open enrollment; again, this should all be outlined in the packet.

All companies need to be certain this information is being conveyed to all employees, both old and new. The new employees need to wait for at least 90 days to enroll. We mention this because some companies fail to address this information to their co-workers.

It’s in every company’s best interest to get the message across, so there is no miscommunication happening.

THE COVERAGE

This is on the mind for everyone, especially those of us who are self-employed. I am self-employed and worry about health coverage every day. This means you have to have something to keep you going, even if it’s not through work. This can turn out to be quite expensive.

Some small businesses worry they won’t have the money to cover the health coverage costs for their employees. This is a common concern, but one that needs to be addressed. Every boss has to work in compliance with this one. Every boss needs to work alongside their employees to see what is affordable and what is not.

Some of this might be a far-stretch for some businesses, especially in this day and age. However, some sort of effort needs to be made.

DOING THE MATH FOR FULL-TIMERS

One last worry that many small businesses worry about is becoming part of the ALE. This is where they become a much bigger fish in a much bigger pond. This is where the Employer Responsibility comes into action. Many small businesses do not want things to get this far.

Why?

It means they share more of a responsibility with their employees coverage-wise. To avoid this, many bosses will sit down to see how many employees they really need. Mostly, we are talking about the full-time staff right now.

The more full-timers a small company has, the more shared responsibility a boss has. This will affect both the money and health insurance. A small business that has 50 full-timers or more are part of the group, which has a greater responsibility.

SUMMING IT ALL UP

Now that we have explained these top 5 for you, hopefully you can understand why these are growing concerns for all small business owners. Small business owners are reaching out though. Many of them are reaching out to the ACA for further information.

Many are seeking more advice and help on how to meet some of the minimum requirements that need to be met. How many of you are in this boat right now? If you are, get in touch with the ACA right now. The ACA might be able to help you out too.

This content is courtesy of Neches FCU, an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.
Neches FCU is one of the most trusted Texas credit unions.
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More Female Soldiers

There have been more women joining the armed services each year and with this rise in enlisting females comes a rise of women leaving the services and looking to transfer back into civilian life. Many women are having a tough time translating their military experience into the economy. This loss of translation is shown with over 11% unemployment among veteran females.

Business Is Up

Some of these women are realizing that they have the ambition needed to start their own business and are doing just that. The number of veteran females starting their own business rose from 130,000 to over 384,000 between 2007 and 2012. The growth with women vets is higher than with any other sector of the economy.

With all the growth in the female vet sector, there is a decrease in joint owned businesses. Most joint owned businesses are married couples, but recent trends show that women are becoming more confident in owning their own business without any male counterpart.

Even though there is an upward trend of women starting businesses many of those ventures need to be built to grow. There seems to be a lack of businesses that are being built with a framework that will scale up with growth. Amanda Brown, Executive Director of the NWBC recognizes this saying, “We have to shift the focus to scaling these businesses.”

Lending a Hand

Building a business to grow requires the know-how to build an existing idea in ways previously not considered. Many women who are finding difficulties in business ventures are turning to one or more initiatives aimed at supporting women vets looking to start a business. Syracuse University’s boot camp for veteran entrepreneurs with disabilities is one group that is giving women the knowledge or at least the support and understanding in their situation to drive veteran women to be successful with their ideas.

Groups like this and other incentives offering support and funding are just these vets are needing at a time when they have done so much for a nation finding themselves lagging in the economic skills to make it in a place that has grown during their time of service.

Crucial Funding Makes Business Happen

From accounting to dog meal replacement bars many ideas are finding themselves to work out when grown in the proper environment. The courage, strength, and knowledge learned during service are giving women a platform to look around and find where they want to aim for next, and many groups are throwing these women the rope needed to climb to those heights.

Kristina Guerrero of Turbopup knows this well after winning a $25,000 grant from Syracuse University’s V-WISE (Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship). This was the crucial finding that Kristina needed to get her meal replacement bars for dogs business off the ground. Since then the company has received another $100,000 from the hit reality show Shark Tank.

Another success story is that of Tabatha Turnman who began her business doing accounting work through subcontracts from the government entities. She has since then grown to 100 employees and touts about $10 million in revenue. It’s these women’s ability to see their strengths and how their ideas can grow and develop into the economy that is part of why many like Tabatha and Kristina succeed in creating businesses.

The Advantage of Contracting

Not all of these businesses are relying on group support and many women are finding that the simplicity of modern contracting is helping them to achieve their business goals. Many business leaders are looking at contract work both in a way of offering their services and how to build their own business without having to rely solely on one individual. Business owners are able to retain their own idea and businesses while outsourcing single aspects of a business out to others.

Women vets are also realizing that they do not need traditional work in order to make a living. Diverse lifestyles and schedules make the idea of contracting out a person’s skills more appealing now than ever before. Women are finding that they can keep their life the way it is and work during the times they have available when they use these contracting services.

Women are realizing the freedom they have available to them when thinking outside the box about income. These trends are a good sign for vets who may not always get the best end of the deal when it comes to how their country treats them.

Thanks for your time today. I hope this article was informative.
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